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lemon:
(plural: ‘lemons’)
(in slang usage) a foolish, useless or ugly person, especially the one who is not sound in mind,
a typical lemon
e.g.
Ben is a real lemon… a good for nothing; I wish he was taken off our team.
According to one explanation, the expression ‘sit or stand there like a lemon’ come from ‘le man’, in middle English it meant a prostitute, and a person who just sits or stands at a place like a prostitute waiting for her johns.
When the ruling party did not show any initiative to tackle the immigration and drug abuse problems, the opposition party members insulted them by saying, ‘We have a government full of lemons!’
For an article that explains how this word ‘lemon’ is used for referring to worthless people and things, please click here & please click here.
a lemon (faulty car) being towed
Note 1:’Lemon’ is also used to refer to something that is useless, not in good condition, or faulty. For an article that talks of the origin of ‘Lemon Law’, please click here.
Note 2: ‘Lemon’ is more commonly used to refer to a very common citrus fruit. For an article that explains the benefits of a lemon fruit, please click here.
Note 3: ‘Lemon’, always with a capital ‘L’, is often found in the names of people, e.g. Don Lemon, Moses Lemon, Laura F Lemon, etc. For an article that explains the origin of this word as a surname, please click here.
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